Background and Recovery

Then and Now

There are 468 known species of sharks living in our oceans. They predate the dinosaurs by 200 million years. Now, however, shark numbers are on the decline, with approximately 73 million sharks killed each year as a result of shark finning and incidental catch by fishermen.

Key Recovery and Milestones

Currently 258 shark species are listed as threatened on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List. An additional 210 species are listed in the Data Deficient category because of a lack of sufficient population data, which itself suggests these species are at high risk. The IUCN has estimated that 32 percent of open-ocean sharks are threatened with extinction.